"This is the excellent foppery of the world: that when we are sick in fortune -- often the surfeit of our own behaviour -- we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars, as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treacherers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence, and all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of stars!" --Edmund, King Lear.

I love this particular soliloquy by Edmund. He seems to be so much more advanced in his mentality as compared to the other characters in the book. After studying King Lear yesterday, I realised that it's actually quite a good play. I'm beginning to discover why I like Literature again. It's just that little zing of excitement you get when you sense foreshadowing in a character's words, and sometimes, it's even like a Math problem sum. Trying to suss out the real meaning behind the old English words, and then actually succeeding is really quite satisfying. Not to mention, you get to be a pseudo-intellectual for that few seconds or so.

I guess why I enjoy Lit so much, is because of the two Lit teachers I had in Sec 3 and Sec 4. I didn't even want to take Lit when we were making our subject combination choices in Sec 2. I wanted to take History instead (oh, the horror!). I was rather disgruntled when I received my subject combination. Our class, 4C, was to be the only class to take Lit in the whole of the express stream. You could imagine our bitterness.

But Mrs Ang and Mdm Wee were really good teachers, despite their eccentricities. I guess on retrospect, we find that they were truly dedicated to our learning and understanding of Literature. But more than that, I think I can safely say all of us earned a begrudging sort of respect for the subject. They were the ones who made Literature such a memorable subject.

Mdm Wee especially, was one of a kind. She could be so bitter at points in time, yet she really was so nice. She never once lost her temper or sent us to the DM despite the countless times we poked fun at her so obviously. I can never get over the "book" of her life story Darianne and I did, which she chanced upon, and I blithely lied that it was of someone else. But I know she knew we were talking about her. I regret doing all the mean things we did to her, but she never once screamed at us. I think she regarded us as naughty children who had to be administered with patience and gentle rebuking. Which in so many ways, we were. She was always encouraging me to write, and always writing nice things for my essays. I still remember her words, "I hope to see you as an accomplished writer in the near future." And when she asked me in Sec 4 if I intended to take Lit in JC, I rebelliously said, "No." When she said, "Why? Your Lit is good!", I stubbornly replied, "But I don't like the subject." I was actually trying to hint to her that I didn't like the way she taught. And she felt my antagonism.

But I'm taking Lit now, once again. I never disliked the subject, and I will always be grateful to Mdm Wee. Without her, I don't think I could've done quite so well in Lit as I did. And maybe someday, I will write a book and give her the very first copy that gets published. (I talk as if I'm some damn big shot, hahaha.) Maybe I'll write about my school life. And go under an European alias, because local authors never sell quite as well.

Okay, enough crap. Need to go shower now. Annyong!